It has grown each year in terms of size, quality and engagement, and always incorporates a participatory element for local dancers in the form of a choreography project led by Jo herself. This year that will be inspired by a summer project held by Hull Dance, who also support the event as part of their wider programme of activities, that saw world renowned choreographer Lea Anderson create a piece locally for performance at the Freedom Festival.

The iconic image of luminous green clad figures is a legacy of this project.

After extending the event last year to incorporate a month-long collaborative venture involving 24 artists, this year it returns to its original form inviting companies to bring new-ish short works of dance-theatre, whilst combining this with some of the collaborative elements that made last year’s event such a huge success. There will also be a selection of short dance films shown.

As always the aim of the night will be to see some quality movement work that inspires, entertains, or provokes thought, and to have fun doing it!

Who Will You See?

LO:CUS Dance Theatre

LO:CUS Dance theatre are a new, all-female contemporary dance quartet based in Hull. The company members met through attending Hull Dance’s professional class and established themselves back in April. Using the combination of dance and theatre to explore the physical and artistic realms of performance, LO:CUS aims to delve into current and topical choreographic themes, focusing on the relationship between reality and humour. The company made their first appearance at Hull’s Freedom Festival in September, and last month won the audience vote at the Hull Dance Prize with their piece ‘Meet Me in the Place Between Right and Wrong.’

The company will be working in collaboration with Rachael O’Neill, who will also be bringing her own work to the event, to develop their piece recently performed at the Freedom Festival.

Rachael O’Neill Originally from Glasgow, Rachael is a freelance dance artist, performer and teacher currently based in Leeds. Since performing and touring with Verve in 2013/14, Rachael has worked with numerous artists throughout the UK, including performing in Earthfall’s tour of Stories From a Crowded Room. Rachael also received the Postgraduate Overall Outstanding achievement award for her time with Verve.

She will be performing her solo Fragmentedbased on images by illustrator Marion Fayolle and unclear childhood memories. Rachael searches for human connection in her work through strong imagery, physical exploration and suggestive narrative.

Non Applicables made up of independent dance artists Sian Myers and Fenella Ryan who create work that comments on today’s culture in a humorous and straight talking way. Based between Hull and London.

They will be performing a piece previously performed at Fruit, but this time as three separate sections:

‘What’s Love Got To Do With It?’ is an exploration into the realms of love and all its possibilities and pitfalls. Bringing together a melange of movement, text and a collection of the greatest love songs, come and mingle through the dating circuit and discover a series of fragmented experiences and light hearted episodes that observes social etiquette, online profiles and the fundamental rules of dating.

Jo is a Hull based choreographer who works with contemporary dance and physical theatre and has an interest in cross-artform collaboration. She won the Manchester based Turn Prize in 2014 for solo dance and video piece Going Places.

Anna is a Hull based Photographic artist and digital illustrator, inspired by the possibilities of transforming the usual into the unusual. This sums her up well: ‘Bluebeany makes the most amazing collection of metaphorical, sensory-rich montages that combine the obvious and the obscure in these luxuriant entertaining worlds on the borders of gentle nightmare and domestic dreamland.’ (Neurocreator Magazine)

Anna and Jo first collaborated in 2014 and felt they had more to explore together. They will work on a new short piece inspired by the recent Hull Dance project with renowned choreographer Lea Anderson, sampling movement material from online videos and re-setting it with new music and costumes.